THE SCIENCE OF CARAMEL

Caramel is simply sugar that has been cooked until it browns. Granulated sugar, or sucrose, has no smell and a simple taste-sweet-but when heated, it melts and darkens, developing complex aromas and flavors that taste decreasingly sweet and increasingly toasty. Heat causes sucrose to break down into its component sugars, glucose and fructose. Eventually, these molecules break down into other molecules that react with one another to create hundreds of new compounds, such as bitter-tasting phenols, fruity-smelling esters, and others that taste buttery, sour, nutty, and malty. These are the delicious flavors and aromas of caramelized sugar.